Gowdy To Team Clinton: Turn Over The Server, Please

Well, the time has come; Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, has sent a request to Hillary Clinton, asking that she turn over the server to a third party for review.

Select Committee on Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy today sent a letter requesting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton turn over the server she used for official State Department business to the State Department inspector general or a neutral third party for independent analysis of what records should be in the public domain.

“Though Secretary Clinton alone is responsible for causing this issue, she alone does not get to determine its outcome,” said Gowdy, R-S.C. “That is why in the interest of transparency for the American people, I am formally requesting she turn the server over to the State Department’s inspector general or a mutually agreeable third party.

“An independent analysis of the private server Secretary Clinton used for the official conduct of U.S. government business is the best way to remove politics and personal consideration from the equation. Having a neutral, third-party arbiter such as the State Department IG do a forensic analysis and document review is an eminently fair and reasonable means to determine what should be made public.

“As I have said many times, we have no interest in Secretary Clinton’s personal emails, but the American people have a clear right to the public records from her time as secretary of State.”

The letter transmitted today to the former secretary’s personal attorney lays out the Select Committee’s exhaustive efforts to acquire her official communications regarding Libya as part of the committee’s inquiry into the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks.

The letter also notes the former secretary’s unprecedented email arrangement involving the use of private email and a server to maintain exclusive control over her official record while in office.

Gowdy has previously said he would support the server being turned over to a retired federal judge, an archivist or other inspector general to make public record determinations, and he reiterated his willingness to work to find a neutral arbiter that is agreeable to all concerned. He also stressed the importance of the committee getting a responsive and complete set of Libya-related documents from State Department to help expedite the committee’s inquiry.

It was this committee investigating the circumstances of the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack against our compound in Benghazi, Libya last August that stumbled upon Clinton’s private email address. The attack left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.

In a letter to Clinton’s attorney, Rep. Gowdy promised that nothing personal or private would be reviewed, adding it’s none of the committee’s business and will not help them in their investigation.

Yesterday, Gowdy issued subpoenas to nearly a dozen staffers, who worked with Hillary Clinton at the State Department when she was Secretary of State, to turn over their emails (via Reuters):

Congress has subpoenaed the emails of "close to a dozen" people who worked in the State Department for Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, the chairman of the U.S. House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks said on Thursday.

Representative Trey Gowdy, chairman of the Benghazi Select Committee, told Reuters these included aides to Clinton and perhaps "aides to aides."

"We sent a subpoena to the State Department for emails from a number of individuals within the State Department, other than Secretary Clinton," Gowdy, a Republican, said in a phone interview.

...

Gowdy said the State Department had asked him not to disclose the names of people whose emails were sought. Gowdy has said that without the emails, no congressional committee investigating the Benghazi attack could claim to have issued a definitive report.

...

Gowdy spoke to Reuters on the same day Senator Charles Grassley sent letters to Secretary of State John Kerry and the State Department's inspector general asking for information on the emails of Huma Abedin, who was a top aide to Clinton.

Grassley said he was probing Clinton's use of a program that let some of Clinton's allies, including Abedin, do private sector work while also working for the government.

Gowdy said he was not coordinating his probe with Grassley, and rejected any suggestion that the State Department might become overworked with requests for information about Clinton and her aides.